Board Of Trustees

Mr Ashok Kamath

Chairman

Ashok Kamath has been the Managing Trustee since 2003 and Chairman of Akshara Foundation since July 1, 2008. He has been actively involved in the strategic planning, analysis and expansion of programmes at Akshara Foundation since 2003. An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, he was formerly the Managing Director of the Indian operations of Analog Devices. He opted to leave behind a successful career in the corporate sector and involve himself in the development sector. His alma mater, IIT-Bombay, presented him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 for his various initiatives and contributions to the field of child education. Ashok is also a Founder Trustee of Pratham Books which aims to have A Book in Every Child’s Hand.

Ms Kanchan Bannerjee

Managing Trustee

Kanchan Bannerjee is the Managing Trustee of Akshara Foundation. She is a sociologist and is trained in communications and teaching children with learning disabilities. She has been associated with the planning, design and execution of several of Akshara Foundation’s programmes since 2000. Under a UNICEF programme, she has created graded readers for entry level classes in Kannada and Hindi for Karnataka and Chattisgarh State Government syllabi. She writes books for early readers, especially bilinguals, designed to introduce a second language in a graphic and friendly manner. She is also a Trustee of Pratham Books.

Ms Suzanne Singh

Trustee

Suzanne Singh has been associated with Akshara Foundation since 2003. A management graduate, she has over 12 years experience in the advertising and marketing fields. She is actively involved in strategy planning and managing the marketing communications needs of Akshara Foundation. She is also the Chairperson of Pratham Books and a member of the Board of United Way, Bangalore.

Ms Rekha M Menon

Trustee

Rekha has been associated with Akshara Foundation since 2003. She is the Chairman of Accenture, India. She has moved on from being Managing Director, HR in Accenture and is now responsible for growing Accenture's business and strengthening the company's presence in communities across India. She is also a member of Accenture’s Global Corporate Citizenship Council. A gold medalist from the XLRI School of business and a member of the Board of Governors of XLRI, Rekha has over 24 years of industry experience. She is involved with many not for profits including as co-founder and trustee of Pratham Books.

Mr R. Dhirendra

Trustee

Dhirendra is CEO of Eduquity Career Technologies, a leading assessment services company and has been on Akshara Foundation’s Board of Trustees ever since its inception.

The Commissioner, BBMP

The Commissioner, BBMP is an Ex–officio trustee of the Board.

Mr Nishith Acharya

Trustee

Nish Acharya is CEO of Citizence, a firm that consults with leading universities, governments, foundations and companies to assist them with innovation, entrepreneurship and philanthropic strategies. Mr. Acharya is currently leading a social enterprise investment fund for the Calvert Foundation, is a regular contributor to Forbes, and is a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress and Gateway House.Nish previously served as Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce for the Obama Administration, and as Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation, a prominent American philanthropy focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and scalability around the world.

Mr Rajiv Khaitan

Trustee

Rajiv Khaitan is a Senior Partner of Khaitan & Co LLP, Advocates. Mr. Khaitan leads the corporate and commercial law practice of Khaitan & Co at Bengaluru. He has over 30 years of experience in general legal practice with focus on business laws. He has vast experience and is specialised in corporate, tax, contracts, real estate and intellectual property laws. He has advised a broad range of clients including foreign and Indian corporates, investment banks, venture capital funds, private equity funds. He has considerable experience in all kinds of real estate transactions and in advising several promoters and HNIs in planning investment holding structures, succession planning and assisting in estate planning, structuring of estates and drafting of trust deeds, wills, family arrangements and partitions. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and LLB degree from the Calcutta University. He serves as an Independent Director on the Board of a few listed companies - Onmobile Global Limited and Himatsingka Seide Limited and on a few unlisted Companies - EFD Induction Private Limited, ABC Consolidated Pvt. Ltd, Himatsingka Wovens Pvt. Ltd, Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd and Himatsingka Holdings NA Inc. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Bangalore Midtown and volunteers with Indian Software Product Industry Round Table - iSpirt and is a part of their List in India Stay in India think tank.

Ms Monica Mehta

Trustee

Monica is a director at Omidyar Network where she manages the firm’s Education initiative’s investments in India.Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Monica was a partner at Kaizen Private Equity where she was involved in fundraising, investor relations, deal sourcing, due diligence, education operations, board roles, investment monitoring, and exits.Before working in capital markets, Monica spent 10 years in the education sector and was the founder or co-founder of three entrepreneurial education ventures.She also conceptualized and set up the Global Pathways Institute (GPI), Mumbai and the American National College (ANC) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where she was instrumental in forging relationships with several U.S. universities that offer US programs in Asia.Additionally, Monica’s family trust runs 12 nonprofit schools and colleges in Saurashtra, Gujarat, where the schools have helped raise the literacy of women to 93%. Given her experience, Monica is well-networked in the education sector in India, with easy access to senior level professionals in the education sector.Monica graduated from Thunderbird School of Global Management with an MBA in International Business, and she also received an M.Com and a B.Com in accounting and finance from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics.